What will the fate of Make in India be once robots take over manufacturing?

Already, some basic drones now cost as little as $20 apiece. In that sense, the Rs 251 smartphone that is ringing (alarm) bells in India is not all that inconceivable.Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN | Updated: March 12, 2016, 22:01 IST

Wife and kids missed their flight out of India to the United States via the Gulf last weekend. When they finally got on one, they missed a connection in Abu Dhabi because weather conditions delayed their landing. Diverted to Sharjah for refuelling, a four-hour leg stretched to seven hours. Through a combination of open source flight trackers and internet video telephony, i shared their frustration and misery over every mile and every moment of their journey sitting at home and office in the US.

They have now caught the next connecting flight, currently flying over Newfoundland in Canada, some three hours from Washington DC, as i write this. Wife has plugged into the Wi-Fi connection on board ($21.95 for the length of the 14-hour flight) and over video i can see the children dozing quietly over the roar of the airplane as it whistles home at 900 kms per hour. “What do you want for dinner?” i ask her. “Can you make some palak paneer and daal?” she replies exhaustedly from 36,000 feet up.

It is not just air travel that is changing, but life and living itself is transforming in ways that are profound, exciting and, to some, dystopian. In as little as five years, perhaps less, “I wish I was there to help” will become a reality.

Augmented reality will allow us to project ourselves into the seat next to a struggling spouse or frail parent on a flight or a train ride, offering virtual presence and support when children have a meltdown, or comforting words, even handholding, during a mother’s painful journey. In turn, you would be able to monitor from air, or from anywhere, your children’s homework or an underling’s handiwork by projecting yourself to the ground.

There has to be a life beyond mere manufacturing. Just Make in India won’t cut it; it needs fine-tuning. Create in India might be a better mantra

Such advances are already being rolled out in geeky conclaves such as TED, where Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Al Gore and A R Rahman were among those who last month tried some of these breathtaking new technologies that make computer screens seem archaic.

Demonstrating the augmented-reality glasses that let the wearer see and interact with holograms, Microsoft’s ubergeek Alex Kipman teleported a NASA scientist on to the stage. In this instance, a precise holographic replica of the Martian landscape was projected on stage from data captured by the Curiosity Mars Rover. The scientist was in three places at once: On Mars and on stage in virtual form, in a room across the street in reality.

Put it another way: When mankind steps on Mars, you almost certainly could be walking lockstep with the astronaut – and experiencing everything he is on the Martian surface, while sitting in your living room – in ways that were unimaginable during the Moon landing. You could travel to the Pyramids of Egypt or Niagara Falls or Taj Mahal without leaving your digs.

The technologies will not just help explore and learn, but also help conquer fear and phobia, address hunger and disease. From growing body parts in a petri dish to 3D printing to discerning hereditary illnesses through genomes, humankind’s advances are becoming more creative than those the industrial revolution engendered.

Of what use is all this in a country that is in the throes of unrest and poverty you might ask. The same questions were asked of computers and smartphones, advances now being used by the poorest in India. The touchscreen, so ubiquitous now, was first rolled out at TED nearly a decade ago. In the same way i yearned to teleport myself to Abu Dhabi to pacify my children, imagine the overworked Uber driver in India – who said he had to tear himself away from his wailing daughter each morning to work the 7am to midnight shift to earn the Rs 50,000 he needs to put her through college – being able to do the same.

These are not terribly expensive technologies, and where they are, they will, like computers and smartphones, soon arrive at a sweet spot where much of the world can afford them. Already, some basic drones now cost as little as $20 apiece. In that sense, the Rs 251 smartphone that is ringing (alarm) bells in India is not all that inconceivable. The pricing is only ahead of its time.

But what these technologies will do is disrupt and sometimes destroy some aspects of growth while galvanising others. Watching a swarm of programmed drones (some of which are already delivering parcels) put together a brick wall, one can’t help fear for the fate of jobs in construction, in manufacturing, in agriculture. In fact, self-driven cars, for which the US government only last month began drawing up a regulatory framework, will destroy the livelihood of millions of young men who have begun driving app-driven cabs in the shared economy space, the same way they disrupted yellow cabs and taxis.

India’s go-to mantra for growth and job creation is its Make in India campaign, based on its so-called youth bulge and demographic dividend. But what if manufacturing is largely over-run by ever-cheaper drones, robots and automatons? After a brief glimpse of the future last month, the Indian formula is not something i would want to bet on even though the future is electrifying. There has to be a life beyond mere manufacturing. Just Make in India won’t cut it; it needs fine-tuning. Create in India might be a better mantra.